Unmanned Systems

Senate authorizers in their mark of the next defense policy bill recommend cutting funding for the Navy's Medium and Large Unmanned Surface Vessel research and development efforts.

A Senate panel is proposing legislation to re-instate -- after a brief hiatus -- the requirement for the Pentagon to produce an annual aviation inventory and funding plan, a move that could provide lawmakers as well as aerospace and defense analysts insight into the U.S. long-term investment plans for the approximately 14,000 aircraft flown by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Despite a less aggressive public campaign from the Navy this budget cycle to highlight unmanned ships, House lawmakers are continuing to push for legislative provisions to temper the service's rapid efforts to develop the untested technology.

Even though the Air Force has spent the last two years trying to reform its drone export enterprise, particularly working to accelerate transfers, industry insiders say they haven't seen the expected results.

The Air Force is researching a new kind of artificial intelligence that can resist adversarial attacks on data -- enabling an autonomous pilot that can eventually fly unmanned vehicles in the contested battle spaces of the future.

The Air Force is looking for a new medium-altitude, unmanned aerial system to support intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike missions that can reach initial operational capability in spring 2031.

The Army plans to restart in July its soldier operational experiment for the Robotic Combat Vehicle at Ft. Carson, CO, which is paused due to COVID-19 restrictions on travel and person-to-person contact.

The Air Force today launched a competition for industry to participate in prototyping and experimentation for the Skyborg manned-unmanned teaming program.

The Skyborg program office plans to release a solicitation to buy vehicles for experimentation this month, on the path toward achieving the imagined artificial intelligence-enabled, autonomous unmanned aerial system that can function as a "force multiplier" for manned aircraft.